A group of 12 Chelsea fans went on a unique trip to France in June to visit the battlefields, cemeteries and memorials of the Western Front and hear, in person, the stories of Chelsea players and fans who fought in the First World War.

The tour was organised by Istoria Travel, in conjunction with the Chelsea Fancast, and everyone on the trip, including the guides, were Blues supporters. One of those guides was historian Alex Churchill, who explained how the famous Footballers’ Battalion – officially the 17th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment – was closely tied to Chelsea and Stamford Bridge.

'Quite a lot of the tour is based around what the Footballers’ Battalion did,' she said, 'because Chelsea and Leyton Orient – then Clapton Orient – were the two clubs that contributed the most fans to the Footballers’ Battalion.

'The principle behind it was to get all these guys signed up to fight, based on the idea that you can come and serve with your football heroes. So there were quite a few players in there, but the principle was that it also made other men want to join.

'We have other stories woven in as well, such as the fans who went off and joined other units, or who were already serving in the army when the war broke out.'

Among those whose resting places the tour group visited were former Chelsea first-team players Arthur Wileman, Bob Whiting and George Kennedy, as well as reserve-team player Thomas Wilson.

'There were two or three Chelsea players in the Footballers’ Battalion, including one of the reserves,' said Churchill.

'The Footballers’ Battalion was actually founded across the road from Stamford Bridge, in Fulham Town Hall. So it was on the doorstep of Stamford Bridge that the whole thing was founded at the end of 1914.

'You’d go and see the club secretary and he’d get your name and details then sort out you delivering yourself to the authorities.

'We researched a book called Over Land and Sea for the centenary of the First World War, which came out in 2015,' added Churchill. 'It was written by Chelsea fans – myself, Andrew Holmes and Jonny Dyer – and some other Chelsea fans helped out with research as well. It was a proper community effort.

'It was an intro book to the First World War, putting Chelsea in their social place at the time. We didn’t contribute the most, we didn’t contribute the least, but it was a look at what your average club got up to in the war. It was a normal club trying to survive, trying to help the community, trying to contribute to the war effort.'

There are various Chelsea fans who seek to uncover the stories of our former players and supporters, including Chelsea Graves Society researchers Nathan Whitehouse and Robert Randall, who went on the tour and were able to contribute detail and information to add to individual stories. For the fans who went along to tread in the footsteps of those who fought in the conflict, it was an evocative experience.

'Everyone on our tour was a Chelsea fan,' said Churchill. 'It was quite humbling to watch these fans react and see them bonding over the course of the weekend, and the WhatsApp group is still rampantly active. We had guys come from Boston, Australia, Dubai and Norway, who flew over to come and pay their respects and walk the ground where these guys had fought and died.

'We did personal research for the Chelsea fans that came, if they had family members who fought in the war, so there was probably one stop a day for someone who was there. With one, we couldn’t get to where his relative was buried, but we surprised him by taking him onto this road that his relative had been running machine gun ammunition up and down during the battle of Passchendaele.'

That particular Chelsea fan was Matthew Young, who flew over from Dubai to be part of the tour group.

'I knew nothing about World War One, other than what I’d seen at the cinema or on the television,' he admitted.

'I was listening to the podcast one night and they were promoting this trip, and it just really captured my imagination. I didn’t know when I might have the opportunity to do something like this again.

'I came to London three days before we went out to France for the tour, and in that time I got to see an aunt that I hadn’t seen for a while. She casually mentioned that my great uncle Lyle was buried in France, which I’d forgotten all about.

'So when she told me that, I then contacted Alex and she looked him up and found out where he was buried. We couldn’t actually visit his grave, but at one point on the trip, we’d been to Langemark, which is the German cemetery, and she took us to a spot where apparently my great uncle was running munitions for the British Army down to the water channel, and that’s where he was working. That was very moving, and it took me completely by surprise.

'Until you go there and actually see it, you cannot imagine the scale of it. It’s unbelievable. There were 40,000 men buried in one cemetery we went to.

'You go to places and see what’s left of the trenches that they dug, which have all been reclaimed by nature, but you can see the trench and you can see the bomb craters, and it brings it all to life. It makes it very real. We went in June and it was a bit cold and wet then. Can you imagine what it must have been like in December?

'These guys were fighting, they weren’t eating properly, they weren’t having a bath or shower, they had to wear their army uniforms and being there made it all real. It was interesting to know that these men, some of whom also happened to play for Chelsea Football Club, went off to the front and many of them didn’t come back.

'It was a different time, a different era, but it hammered home the fact that it could have been you and me signing up. It was 110 years ago outside the same ground that players and fans were signing up.

'It was great to do it with other Chelsea fans, rather than a group of random people, and what we all had in common was our love for the club.'

This article first appeared in the Chelsea matchday programme in 2024. You can buy past copies of the programme here.